For automatic cleaning of toilet bowls, it is known to attach active-substance preparations in lump form in a cage-like container to the inner rim of the toilet bowl. With each flushing operation, a portion of the active substance becomes dissolved in the flushing water and is distributed with the water into the bowl.
Active-substance preparations used in such applications can be shaped into dimensionally stable, non-deliquescent blocks that still possess sufficient solubility so that a sufficient quantity of active substances is delivered into the water during the short flushing phase. It is also important that the active-substance block remain unmodified after the flushing operation, aside from a scent delivery.
An example of one such active-substance preparation is described in German Patent Application Publication No. 34 24 317 A1. The preparation contains anionic and nonionic surfactants, perfume, cellulose powder, rinse-out regulators, inorganic salts, complexing agents, lime-dissolving acids, antimicrobial active substances, plasticizers, and further usual additives.
Single-use toilet baskets which must be disposed of after the active-substance block is completely dissolved are known. More environmentally favorable are the (likewise known) refillable toilet baskets, two of which are described in DE 80 01 994 U1 and DE 34 23 758 A1.
Those toilet baskets known for receiving lump-type toilet cleaning blocks are typically not usable for pastes or liquids. This is because the paste or liquid is not intended to flow or drip spontaneously out of the basket after completion of the flushing operation. In addition, only a defined fraction of the liquid or paste is to be delivered at each flushing operation. This fraction of active-substance preparation delivered should be as identical as possible at each flushing operation. Toilet baskets of this kind for pasty or liquid preparations are known, for example, from DE 19520145A1 or from EP 1334239B1.
Also known in the art are multi-chamber receptacles for active-substance preparations described above, which are suspended in the toilet bowl in such a way that in the context of the flushing operation of the toilet bowl with water, an active-substance delivery from the toilet basket into the toilet bowl occurs. As a result of the inhomogeneous flow conditions within the flow of flushing water, inhomogeneous emptying of the chambers can occur depending on the positioning of the toilet basket at the edge of the toilet bowl.
A substantial disadvantage of all these toilet baskets is that metering depends substantially on the particular local flow conditions in the toilet bowl during the flushing operation. These flow conditions can be very different depending on the type of toilet and positioning of the toilet basket in or on the toilet bowl. It may happen, for example, that with some types of toilet, no active-substance release from the toilet basket takes place, since no water, or insufficient water, flows over the toilet basket during the flushing operation, resulting in the metering mechanism of the toilet basket not being triggered.
Release of active substances from toilet dispensers of this kind is usually accomplished by penetration of flushing water through openings in the toilet dispenser, wherein the active substances are surface-dissolved and, upon exit of the flushing water through corresponding exit openings, are discharged from the toilet dispenser and carried along. Depending on the arrangement of the toilet dispenser in the toilet, the intensity of flow through it differs because of the often locally very different flow conditions of the flushing water outlet at the rim of the toilet bowl, resulting in only a diffuse delivery of active substances being implemented. This inhomogeneous active-substance delivery represents a substantial disadvantage.
This is particularly problematic if the toilet basket is embodied in an elongated, “linear” fashion, since the aforementioned flow conditions can result in a locally inhomogeneous rinsing of the active substances out of such toilet baskets, such as those described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0245470 A1.
The same also applies to toilet baskets for delivering liquid or gelled active-substance preparations, in which, depending on the configuration of the toilet basket, a distributing element can be provided by means of which, in particular, the liquid active-substance preparations can be delivered by the fact that the active-substance preparation(s) are firstly distributed onto the distributing element in order then to be flowed over by flushing water and delivered into the flushing water. Here as well, the degree of rinsing out is critically dependent on position and on the flow conditions in the toilet.